The Château de Suscinio, seen from a viewpoint southeast of the castle, Brittany, France
Some background information:
The Château de Suscinio is a Breton castle, built in the late Middle Ages. It was meant to be the residence of the Dukes of Brittany. The château is located in the commune of Sarzeau in the French département of Morbihan, near the coastline of the Atlantic Ocean, about 20 kilometres (12 miles) south of the city of Vannes. The site comprises the large moated castle, a ruined chapel, a dovecote, and a few ruined outbuildings.
Situated between the sea and a forest with lots of game for hunting, the Château de Suscinio was usually designed to be a place of leisure. The first seigniorial house dates from the beginning of the 13th century. At the end of the 14th century, the castle was fortified and enlarged, when the heirs of the Dutchy of Brittany had to fight to keep their assets, after the castle was taken by Bertrand du Guesclin, the infamous Constable of France. At that time, Brittany was not fully united with France yet.
The Dukes of Brittany John V and John VI constructed a new seigniorial residence block with a large, new corner tower known as the Tour Neuve. Furthermore, a casemate wall was added at the end of the 15th century to protect artillery pieces. From 1471 to 1484, the castle housed Jasper Tudor, Henry Tudor (later King Henry VII of England) and the core of their group of exiled Lancastrians, numbering about 500 cohorts. But since the castle could only house some 100 persons, the rest must have been billeted close about, most likely in Kermoizin and other villages nearby.
Francis II, Duke of Brittany, supported this group of exiled Englishmen against all the Plantagenet demands that he should turn them in. For eleven years, Suscinio was an armed camp, alert against any attempt to kidnap Jasper and Henry and return them to England where they were outlawed and hence, would have been promptly executed as threats to the Yorkist rule.
Duke Francis II supported the failed Lancastrian rebellion and invasion of England in 1483 with 40,000 gold crowns, 15,000 soldiers, and a fleet of transport ships. When the Duke suffered from one of his periods of incapacitating illness, his treasurer Pierre Landais agreed to surrender Henry Tudor to the representatives of the Yorkist King Richard III of England. In return he demanded a pledge of 3,000 English archers to defend Brittany against a threatening French attack.
News of this plot by Landais reached the exiled Lancastrians just in time, so that both Tudors could escape separately just hours ahead of Landais' soldiers. They managed to cross the nearby border with France, where they were welcomed at the court of the French King Charles VIII. Shortly thereafter, when Duke Francis II had regained his faculties, he offered the 400 remaining Lancastrians, who were still at and around Suscinio, safe-conduct into France and even paid for their expenses.
In 1488, Duke Francis II died. He was succeeded by his 11-year-old daughter Anne of Brittany, who became the last ruling Duchess of Brittany, and twice Queen of France. When she died in 1514, Brittany lost its autonomy and was fully incorporated into France. The castle was then slowly abandoned by the aristocracy. In the early sixteenth century, the former great hall of the 14th century was destroyed. The castle was then confiscated by the French crown under King Francis I of France who offered it to one of his mistresses.
Written off in the 17th and 18th centuries, the Château de Suscinio was used off-and-on as a stone quarry until the French Revolution. During the Revolution, the castle was sold to a merchant who continued to sell the stones, which caused the buildings falling into even greater ruin. In 1795, Suscinio was temporarily occupied by the royalists coming from Quiberon and heading to the north of Morbihan.
In 1965, the Château de Suscinio was bought by the department of Morbihan. An extensive restoration began, with the aim to preserve it. Nowadays, the castle has again regained its allure of an intact medieval fortress, but major restoration work continues. Because of its restoration to its presumed late-15th-century condition, the Château de Suscinio is even rather unique in Western Europe.